In celebration and expansion of our current exhibition Too Fast To Sing, join us on Saturday, December 13th at 2 p.m. for a special performance with Elana Mann and HEX, the award winning contemporary vocal sextet. Speak Again is a collaborative assembly of performances exploring the shifting politics of hearing, listening, and speaking. Reimaging LAMAG’s gallery as a stage, the artists of HEX weld Mann’s sculptural instruments into a meditation on the subtle distinctions between sound, language, and meaning. The performance resonates with the spirit of Mann’s practice oriented around freedom of speech, the amplification of divergent voices, and the productive force of difference. Speak Again arrives at a moment of international upheaval, asking audiences to consider how listening and speaking function as a critical tools for navigating an incoherent and volatile present.
Please note this program is free but will require an RSVP for entry.
This public program is made possible by support from the Plum Foundation. Additional support and thanks to the Jenni Crane Foundation, an initiative dedicated to preserving the legacy of the esteemed artist and curator.
This program is organized by Hugo Cervantes, LAMAG Curator, and Carla Fantozzi, Barnsdall Art Park Director, with Elana Mann.
Accessibility
As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. To arrange accommodations, please contact lamag@lacity.org or call (323) 644-6269.
Saunder Choi is an award-winning Filipino-Chinese composer and choral artist based in Los Angeles whose work centers identity, place, and shared human experience. Recipient of the 2024 ACDA Raymond W. Brock Prize for Professional Composers, his music has been performed internationally by leading choirs such as the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, and many others. As an arranger, he has written for Lea Salonga, GMCLA, San Francisco Symphony, and many others. He sings with Pacific Chorale, L.A. Choral Lab, and HEX Vocal Ensemble, as well as in major film scores. He is the Director of Music at the UU Church of Santa Monica and a teaching artist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
James Hayden, bass, prefers his operatic arias declaimed atop a penny-farthing bicycle (LA Phil’s Europeras) and his renaissance polyphony memorized and fully choreographed (Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Lagrime di San Pietro). He has provided pop vocals for Rosalía’s Motomami and Motomami+ albums, subharmonic vocals for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, patriotic vocals for the The American Adventure at Epcot, and backing vocals for Lady Gaga’s 2025 Coachella set. When not being “languorously sexy” or “a weird, looming presence” on the operatic stage, you can find him playing convoluted board games with friends and writing award winning pop a cappella charts for ensembles across the U.S. www.jamesroberthayden.com
Sharon Chohi Kim is a Los Angeles–based performing artist and composer working at the intersection of experimental opera, performance art, improvisation, and sound installation. She has composed and created performances for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), LA Phil’s Insight series, and REDCAT, and has performed in projects such as Meredith Monk’s Atlas with the LA Philharmonic, Sweet Land with The Industry, and Polia and Blastema at Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O22. Her collaborations span institutions including the Getty Center, Hammer Museum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Human Resources LA, activating spaces from gardens to water as living instruments. Her work as a performer and composer has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, KCET, KCRW, and the Los Angeles Times.
Elana Mann is an artist and activist who makes artwork about the power of the collective voice, freedom of speech, and disability. Mann was born Hard of Hearing and for twenty years she has researched the act of listening through sculpture, sound, works on paper, and public performances. She frequently collaborates with musicians, performers and activists to engage her sonic sculptures. From 2021-2025 Mann co-led a campaign that successfully returned over 650 stolen artworks to 86 artists. Mann’s decade-long project about censorship (Call to Arms, 2015-present) was recently subjected to censorship at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. elanamann.com
Molly Pease (mollypeasemusic.com) is a versatile, experimental and collaborative vocal artist and composer. She is a member and assistant director of HEX, regularly sings with LA Master Chorale, Tonality, and LA Choral Lab, and has performed with Björk, Tune-Yards, Sigur Rós, Dirty Projectors, and Kronos Quartet, among others. Her most recent musical release is called “Inner Astronomy” (innerastronomy.com), and she recently received the Opera America Discovery Grant for Women Composers for her opera-in-progress HYSTERIA.
Fahad Siadat: A “fanciful and downright utopian artist and thinker” (LA Times), Fahad Siadat explores sound as spiritual practice, creating interdisciplinary pieces as a vehicle for unveiling the mystery of our interconnected world. His work is described as “evoking wonder, desire, and terror” (Off Broadway) with narratives that “border on being a spiritual journey” (LA Dance Chronicle) and has been presented by the Ford Theatre, Broadstage, and LA County Museum of Art.
Chloé Vaught is a native of Los Angeles, California with a bachelor of music degree from UCLA. As a soloist, she loves to sing everything from early music, lieder, contemporary classical, jazz, and more. You can find her singing all around the city including with the LA Opera Chorus, LA Master Chorale, HEX Vocal Ensemble, on film scores, or her holiday band, Mrs. Claus and the Swingin’ Reindeer!